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Sports betting innovator launches new start-up
17 November 2021
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By Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland
One of Scotland's most successful technology groups is starting once again with a brand-new company - and has secured the greatest initial investment of any British start-up company.
BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports betting site FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.
The new company has seed financing of $21m.
It aims to launch a new open source software platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting wagering, in the very first half of next year.
The business is recruiting personnel from a base in Scotland.
FanDuel was sold to Flutter - previously called Paddy Power in 2018 and is now worth more than $30bn.
However, Mr Eccles and other co-founders remain in legal dispute with FanDuel's later stage investors over the method in which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh group without a share of the rising valuation.
Mr Eccles said that one thing he found out from the FanDuel experience was to select financiers carefully.
He informed BBC Scotland: "We took a lot of lessons from that, among which was the significance of who we select as investors in this new organization, to guarantee their values are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary tasks properly, and that they're the right partners for us."
The $21m seed financing for BetDEX consists of stakes taken by seven backers of US innovation firms, including two big funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in investing in companies operating with crypto-currencies.
Varun Sudhakar, president of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting industry charges high rates for poor products and limitations trades by its most successful users.
"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this method. We will effectively compete against incumbents with a significantly exceptional item and low fees, which is now possible with the arrival of the blockchain innovation."
As chairman of the new firm, Mr Eccles stated it could look familiar to retail punters utilized to existing online companies.
'Pool of talent'
However, he states that those who use its platform to run their own sports betting companies will be able to innovate and create a wider variety of wagering products.
He said the typical share taken by online bookmakers is 7% to 10% of a stake, however BetDEX ought to permit that to fall below 1%.
The business will develop its own sports betting apps to run on the platform.
Mr Eccles stated these would take an "intelligent, thoughtful" technique to the method they are marketed to protect those who have a hard time with problem gaming.
He stated the group of around 500 software engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland revealed that it stays the place to build a company. BetDEX has the same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.
"A lot of that [FanDuel] success was constructed on an extremely competent, extremely talented engineering group, that constructed this product that could process millions of bets and countless users.
"There's a real talent swimming pool of experienced engineers who helped us build our item and that's what we want to take advantage of for BetDEX too."
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More on this story
Paddy Power purchases dream sports betting website
23 May 2018
FanDuel creator leaves company
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Published
20 November 2017
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Sports Betting Innovator Launches Brand-new Start-up
Jerry Cline edited this page 2025-01-16 00:10:39 +00:00